Journeys of Discovery: Narrative of a SIP in Sierra Leone

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This Senior Individualized Project is the revised narrative of
my experiences in Europe, Africa and Kalamazoo College during the
period June 1992-the present. This time period includes my Junior
year Foreign Study Quarters in Caceres, Spain (September 1992-
February, 1993), through the quarters that I spent at Kalamazoo
College before completing my Senior Individualized Project Quarter
in Freetown, Sierra Leone (January-March, 1994). My memories and
journals of the feelings, thoughts and actions which led me on these
journeys of personal discovery on three continents provide the basis
for this personal narrative.
This narrative also details the extensive research on oral
tradition, or story-telling, written and performance analysis which I
completed while in Sierra Leone. The motivation for this topic was
born out of a union between my long-standing academic interests in
literature, mythology, foreign language, theatre and anthropology, as
well as my personal interest in my heritage as an African-American.
The inspiration for this project was Zora Neale Hurston, the renowned
African-American writer and anthropologist, whose intelligence, wit
and spirit of adventure I have admired and tried to emulate all of
my adult life.